NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6

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Comments

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited December 1969

    This was the offer:

    Lock-In-Your-Savings-Promo-2015-02-23.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Melanie! :)

  • DkgooseDkgoose Posts: 1,451
    edited December 1969

    haha, I almost bought the dwarf clothes too, oh well, still buying both pro bundles, the characters look amazing

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    The dwarf clothes are quite fun looking :)

    Heads up in case you didn't notice- http://www.daz3d.com/vidal-braids-for-genesis-2-male-s is NOT included in the Pro bundle for Darius, but the female edition for Monique is. Thought I'd mention it before anyone used their 30% then realized they'd missed it.

  • DkgooseDkgoose Posts: 1,451
    edited December 1969

    I noticed that I think I'm gonna try cross figure in the hair and see how it looks before I but the male version, they don't seem too different

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,647
    edited December 1969

    I'll do a comparison head shot of both hairs so you can see if you are interested. I admit I'm curious if there is a difference. I hope the male hair has sideburns and different hairline.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Well, I got some things off my wishlist. Got the Pro Bundles as under $30 that is extremely fantastic. Extremely. Thank you DAZ, and thank you vendors! We'll do our best to render them in the most complimentary way that we can :)

    I'll take a break from the files and catalog to do some of the items offered during March Madness. Anyone else that gets MM stuff, feel free to post. It will help others see what the products can really do.

    I went ahead and checked out with the 30% and didn't wait until tomorrow, as there was more than my budget could handle from the releases/selection for today. Why they are starting March Madness in February, before monthly paychecks come in, boggles my mind. (But I'm sure my husband is saying, "Thank you DAZ!!!!")

    Some of the things I picked up were:

    CLOTHES:
    http://www.daz3d.com/urban-survivors-hd-for-genesis-2-female-s-and-male-s
    http://www.daz3d.com/tokyo-stroll-outfit-for-genesis-2-female-s (and textures)
    http://www.daz3d.com/japanese-school-uniforms-for-boys (think Fabricator!)
    http://www.daz3d.com/girl-s-night-outfit-for-genesis-2-female-s
    http://www.daz3d.com/sherwood-hunter-outfit-for-genesis-2-male-s

    MORPHS/EXPRESSIONS:
    http://www.daz3d.com/fab-face-for-lee-6
    http://www.daz3d.com/people-of-earth-faces-of-africa-genesis-2-male-s (and for females)
    http://www.daz3d.com/sweetheart-expressions-for-belle-6
    http://www.daz3d.com/make-her-mad-expressions-for-genesis-2-female-s (and make her smile)

    CHARACTERS:
    http://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-memoo-hd (yeah, one of the IGC's featured her and Memoo is such a fun name too!)

    Wanted to point out one I have not seen rendered, and it looks pretty neat. Anyone done anything with this one? (or did I miss it?)
    http://www.daz3d.com/displacement-for-victoria-6

    So what did you all pick up that you've been waiting on or noticed and had to have?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited February 2015

    Monique 6 (Daz Originals)
    Vidal Braids for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / AprilYSH)
    Aether Outfit for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / DarkStarBurning / Mada)

    http://www.daz3d.com/monique-6
    http://www.daz3d.com/vidal-braids-for-genesis-2-female-s
    http://www.daz3d.com/aether-outfit-for-genesis-2-female-s

    The hair renders in a very decent time, I was pleasantly surprised. One thing- it comes with a wrap and in the Content Library, when I opened up the product, there was a thumbnail with an X wrap (remove wrap) and it DID NOT WORK. I had to go to the Surface pane and do opacity to zero. I didn't see Wrap in scene under the hair, and broke everything down. The only way to select the Wrap was in Surface. Someone see how I am missing it?

    I think Aether would make a neat swimsuit.
    New releases already out for today, Medea Hair looks nice at a fast glance.

    MoniqueVidalBraidsAether.jpg
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    MoniqueVidalBraidsAether2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    I am getting these error messages when I try to load Shaneka straight from People>Characters in Content Library, or even when I add her to Monique already in the scene. I have Genesis Evolution- the head, body, expressions, and muscularity- all installed. What's the solution? (What's the problem?)

    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyelashesLength.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesIrisSize.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesCorneaBulge.dsf

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Shaneka HD for Monique 6 (Daz Originals / Fred Winkler Art)
    Tribal Dancer for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / Arien / Mada)
    Omri Hair for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / AprilYSH)

    http://www.daz3d.com/fw-shaneka-hd-for-monique-6
    http://www.daz3d.com/tribal-dancer-for-genesis-2-female-s
    http://www.daz3d.com/omri-hair-genesis-2-female-s

    Continuing with items in the Pro Bundle, the textures on the Tribal Dancer outfit are beautiful. Don't know when I'll ever use this outfit though! Definitely not the top. This is Shaneka, but with those error messages that I posted earlier.

    ShanekaOmriHairTribalDancerSig.jpg
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  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    I am getting these error messages when I try to load Shaneka straight from People>Characters in Content Library, or even when I add her to Monique already in the scene. I have Genesis Evolution- the head, body, expressions, and muscularity- all installed. What's the solution? (What's the problem?)

    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyelashesLength.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesIrisSize.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesCorneaBulge.dsf

    do you have the G2F head morphs?

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    ... I have Genesis Evolution- the head, body, expressions, and muscularity- all installed. What's the solution? (What's the problem?)

    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyelashesLength.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesIrisSize.dsf
    /data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 2/Female/Morphs/DAZ 3D/Evolution Head/PHMEyesCorneaBulge.dsf

    You write "Genesis Evolution", but those are for Genesis1
    Do you have the "Genesis 2 Female(s) Morphs Bundle"
    https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-morphs-bundle
    or the Head morphs
    https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-head-morphs
    ?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Yes- sorry, forgot to put the 2. The Genesis 2 female head morphs are installed. That's why I am puzzled.

    Anyway, here's the Shaneka that took all night to render. Click to enlarge/click again, large render.

    ShanekaOmriHairTribalDancer2SIG.jpg
    1427 x 1800 - 1M
  • FistyFisty Posts: 3,416
    edited December 1969

    I need that hair.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited February 2015

    Sounds like everyone's budgets are being blown before we even get into March. :) Was there an explanation given as to why March Madness was started in February- three days early? Doesn't make sense, as people are at the end of a pay period.

    For today, I really like the boxes and briefs, primarily for the wonderful "wadded up" feature so you can have clothes laying around to make a variety of scenes more realistic. Also like the Medea Hair, the Add-On is okay but I plan on moving that center section, the strands are tossed there, too distracting for me. From the thumbnails, there are quite a few options. Has anyone rendered that- curious about render times?

    For Zuri, you know how I am about eyebrows and I prefer hair texture at the beginning of the brow, and not the painted on look. In the light of the promo, they also look a bit shiny. I do think the eyelashes and lip lines are nicely done. If anyone renders Zuri I'd love to see her, as we all know promos may not show the depth of the character and how they look in different lights. :)

    DON'T FORGET TO USE YOUR PC COUPONS!!! Remember either last month or the month before, they changed them out early! If you are buying 2 things from MM, consider going into the stores and finding things 30% in the gallery (that tells you they are DO's) then you'll have your 50% off that, then another $6 off. What I did: (bought 2 things, so 50% off for the stores:)

    http://www.daz3d.com/fiora-hair-for-genesis-2-females-and-victoria-4 and I also got http://www.daz3d.com/ej-lluvia which is also that way, so each cost me $2.89 / $2.74

    And of course, you have your vendor coupon too, good for more than DO's.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Fisty said:
    I need that hair.

    Agree! :)
    Can't tell you about the render times though, as it was a very large render and the shading rate was .20. It wasn't a zip along speed, but reasonable. It rendered all night so I don't really know how long it took to do.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Fun render- if you haven't seen this one, pop in and tell Shawn what you think :) It made me grin big time!
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53039/#769189

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Well, I'm having a night. I'm still getting that cornea bulge error or whatever it is (but the other couple errors have disappeared) and then I decided to render a couple new things. Doing Stacia. Well, she didn't show up in store search. Found her in Product Library. But get this- for the first time, there's no view the product page! That's a first. I can see it in the Product Library, but can't click on the link they always have to go to the individual page.

    Type this in your Product Library and see if your page has a link? FWSA Stacia for Victoria 6
    Rendering her now. All makeup options are HEAVY. They look subtle in the thumbnails, but man, are looking dark in viewport. We'll see how it renders.

    Then the fun continues. I was in Content Library (which is USUALLY better than finding it via Products) and not this time! The G2F>then to Clothing got me the Girls Night Outfit and there are no adjustments for the top at all other than raising things up. I broke it completely down in the Scene, no fixes, nothing under Actor, etc. The boobs were poking through, really bad fit. The heels were wonky, no fixes for them either.

    Well, then went to Products and of course the top went on smoothly, no poke through. The feet had a pose fix. So you might make a note that for this outfit, if you want a one-shop-stop, use the Products and go find Girls Night Outfit THERE.

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Well, I'm having a night. I'm still getting that cornea bulge error or whatever it is (but the other couple errors have disappeared) and then I decided to render a couple new things. Doing Stacia. Well, she didn't show up in store search. Found her in Product Library. But get this- for the first time, there's no view the product page! That's a first. I can see it in the Product Library, but can't click on the link they always have to go to the individual page.

    Type this in your Product Library and see if your page has a link? FWSA Stacia for Victoria 6
    Rendering her now. All makeup options are HEAVY. They look subtle in the thumbnails, but man, are looking dark in viewport. We'll see how it renders.

    Then the fun continues. I was in Content Library (which is USUALLY better than finding it via Products) and not this time! The G2F>then to Clothing got me the Girls Night Outfit and there are no adjustments for the top at all other than raising things up. I broke it completely down in the Scene, no fixes, nothing under Actor, etc. The boobs were poking through, really bad fit. The heels were wonky, no fixes for them either.

    Well, then went to Products and of course the top went on smoothly, no poke through. The feet had a pose fix. So you might make a note that for this outfit, if you want a one-shop-stop, use the Products and go find Girls Night Outfit THERE.


    FWSA Stacia was a Happy Hollidaz PA Freebie (Day 7) - she apparently was never released to the store as a permanent product.
  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited December 1969

    Invited Guest Contributor

    I've not posted anything for ages, so I thought I'd show my first look at Darius and Monique. I bought the Darius bundle as I have all the Genesis 2 Male bases except Brodie, then got the Monique bundle for the 10% savings offer to add to the shedload of items I had in my cart to use the "Locked In" coupon (and I thought she looked nice, too).

    First Darius 6 (DAZ Original) with Omri Hair for G2M (DO/AprilYSH). On the left is an out-of-the-box of both with the lights from the Omri Hair set. On the right I'm using Age of Armour lights - one Advanced Distant Light and one Advanced Spotlight - I also picked a different eye colour and tried one of the other hair colours (tweaked a little as it was a very bright blue) and tweaked some of the expression settings.
    In both cases the shirt is from the Yakuza Outfit for G2M (DO/Mada/Sarsa) with shaders from Phoebe's Fancy (Fisty).

    Below that are a couple of shots of Monique 6 (DAZ Original). Again the left is using the Omri Hair light set, while the right is using AoA lights. One shows one of the makeup options.
    I haven't downloaded most of either bundle (short of DL allowance) so I didn't have the female hair yet - instead I used Cinnia Hair for G2F and V4 (SWAM) which was part of my shedload order.

    Finally I've applied a combination of Live Emotions for Monique 6 (DAZ Original) - AoA lights again. As usual I find the teeth a bit even and overly white (not just on Monique but most other figures) so I toned them down with a few Dental Plan settings to look less like a toothpaste ad. I'm also finding the edge of the upper lip a bit overly defined, so I'll probably have a rummage through my morph kits to see if I can do anything about that.

    Monique-Look-2.jpg
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    Monique-Look-1.jpg
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    Darius-Look-1.jpg
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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,647
    edited December 1969

    Those renders look great. Nice to see some headshots of the different characters. =-)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Oooh, Melanie- I didn't know Stacia wasn't ever released- that is a shame for folks who missed her.
    The second Darius reminds me of Warrick from CSI but only due to the eye color- that was amazing! Fisty's shaders look awesome, I'll have to wishlist those, don't know how they slipped by me.

    I'm finding that regardless of which lights I use, for the African American styled hair, I'm having to add a dull spotlight or distant light coming over the back shoulder from above, due to the dark nature of the hair. I like the hair of the first Darius better than the second one due to the lighting on it, and love that white rim on the jawbone. Both of those, the jaw looks very nice. Which one do you like best? I'd have to vote for the second one on Darius. The third one on Monique.

    Do you have Fangtastic? That does GREAT with teeth.

    Coming up, my Stacia.

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited December 1969

    Thanks, Serene and Novica.
    Yes it is a pity that Stacia never surfaced as a perma-product - I'm really glad I picked her up in December.
    I wish I'd chosen a lighter backdrop for those (especially Darius) as the hair does tend to fade into that one - the lights on the left are better for the hair (but then they were presumably created to suit it by April) but I prefer the AoA lights for the skin. I'm sure I could get them much better with a little more time...
    I do have Fangtastic but it's shamefully underused as yet (as is 50% of my Content Library :red: ) - I often use Dental Plan or sometimes just some nice cheap and cheerful yellowing of the teeth via diffuse!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,647
    edited December 1969

    I am somewhat less sensitized to the white teeth issue. But it is great to know what products to use to overcome it. I am ashamed to admit I don't own dental plan or fantastic.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited February 2015

    FWSA Stacia for Victoria 6 (Dec 12th freebie)
    Girl's Night Outfit for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / Bobbie25 / Sarsa)

    http://www.daz3d.com/girl-s-night-outfit-for-genesis-2-female-s

    Stacia is wearing Toulouse Hair, which isn't coming up in DIM or on the site, I looked at the Genesis Starter Essentials and it's not in the list, but isn't it part of that? Sigh, we went through this before and I can't keep up with all of it. Sorry! I looked here and maybe it was the Aldora Hair I am thinking of? It's not coming up in DIM or store search (but that's not unusual!)

    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/14812/start

    Anyway, wanted to show you closeups of the shoes, they're quite fun, and this outfit has several great material sets. I didn't find very many options for fixing the top, particularly the straps, so don't know if I missed them, but I did breakdown in scene and also under actor, and found only up and down options for sides, bottom of top, etc. Again, loading it onto the figure from Products did better than from G2F>Clothing in Content Library. Did it twice. No explanation for that. The second way gave me bigtime pokethrough on the bust.The figure was selected each time, I double checked that the second time I tested it. My studio may be wonky.

    If they ever release Stacia again, I think you'd like her. Sorry for the lack of expressions, I am working on files and some things that were loaded into the studio got unloaded, I'm organizing and haven't redone what I took out. :)

    There is a plain makeup option for Stacia, the other makeups are indeed pretty heavy. I mentioned that the thumbnail makeups look subtle but go on heavy- it renders heavy too.

    EDIT: These recent renders are all looking darker than they really are, due to being large and shrunk. When you click to enlarge, they will lighten up. :)

    StaciaGirlsNightOutfitTalouseHr.jpg
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    StaciaGirlsNightOutfitTalouseHr3.jpg
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    StaciaGirlsNightOutfitTalouseHr2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    MelanieL said:
    Thanks, Serene and Novica.
    I do have Fangtastic but it's shamefully underused as yet (as is 50% of my Content Library :red: ) - I often use Dental Plan or sometimes just some nice cheap and cheerful yellowing of the teeth via diffuse!

    When I use it (and I'm like you, I don't use stuff that I own, MOST the time!) I use it to make the teeth irregular and use Surface like you do for the diffuse. I put the diffuse at a light bluish-gray and the specular as a light blue, very pale, or a very pale yellow That's how I did these teeth, posting from one of my previous thread because it's buried somewhere and I don't have time to track it down. This was changing the shape of the canine teeth, etc, with the Surface changes to avoid the Pepsodent Smile! :)

    fangtastic4.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Want to mention one other thing with Fangtastic that really makes a difference- if I recall correctly, you can move the entire row of teeth forward and backward- aka, if you don't want the bottom teeth to show so much- and also move the bottom teeth down. So it's much more than a shaping product, it's a .....hmmm...location product. I'll have to go putz around with it again to refresh my memory, but it's definitely one to wishlist for those of you who don't have it. I have Dental Plan so I should play with that too, haven't tried it yet.

    One question comes to mind- (and I haven't done a lot of presets, aka, keeping a character, etc) If we use either of these and change the teeth, do we keep those changes using character presets, or is that limited to only the standard types of morphs/morph products? Are teeth included? (Hope I'm making sense.)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited February 2015

    I'm back from my Walmart shopping trip- I go later in the evenings when I have to shop so I can cruise through the store faster. Wait too late and the stockers are blocking the aisle though. The art of grocery shopping, eh?

    Listen, if you haven't gotten the Pro Bundles, Starter Bundles- they go off the 50% discount and down to 30% after today (Saturday) so it's 10:30pm (Central) and that means in 2 and a half hours (1pm my time) the prices should change. It was posted in another thread that it would be 3 days only so that means it ends today.

    I've got this down to a science- if I have more than two releases I only get two, and put one back for the next day and see what new releases are out then. So I always have two and get the 50% (plus 10%) on the featured stores in MM. I wonder if they will do a halfway point "everything" again (but probably not the bundles) like they did with other sales. Since it was before a payday (March 1st) I think they owe it to their vendors to generate more sales by doing that. (Assuming the vendors want their stuff offered at a discount though.)

    Kudos to the vendors for some extremely nice products. We appreciate you very much!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited March 2015

    Okay, here's Darius. He was a bit tricky to light so here's a darker one and a lighter one. I added lights for the lighter one, they are not the same exact set as the other one. This is distant and spot lights and took me a few hours of testing.

    I am rendering one as a 2000 pixel image. Will take awhile.

    Darius_3.jpg
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    Darius_2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,384
    edited December 1969

    @Novica - he's looking good - the time was worth it. Sadly I'm running short of time at the moment - I really shouldn't be here in the Forum as I've have my 3rd RRRR entry in progress (progress being slight so far) for three weeks and tonight is the cut-off!
    Dental plan can make inidivdual teeth disappear, or partially dialling will adjust the height down, so you can make them more irregular. I've not spent that long on it myself, so not sure what else it can do. You can also create a front gap, sharpen and move the whole upper or lower set back and forth.

This discussion has been closed.